Powerless
by StormyAngel12
Summary: Of all the stories to find myself born into...why did it have to be this one?
1. Chapter 1

Powerless. I was powerless.

It was _frustrating_. There she was, sitting four seats in front of me, and there was nothing I could do. Kaname Madoka was watching Akemi Homura introduce herself, that suave and confident time traveler. I couldn't be certain, but odds were that this was the final cycle before Madoka became a god.

Of all the fictional worlds for me to be reborn into it had to be _this_ one, where the only power to impact events at all was restricted to girls. Being a boy, that literally excluded me from the entire plot of the show. It was a magical _girl_ anime, and I did not meet the requirements.

Foreknowledge? Useless. Homura already had it aplenty, and the show had demonstrated exactly how futile it had been for her to share it. Besides, where was my proof? I had no convenient magical powers, _nor could I ever_. I might as well throw jealousy into the mix.

And the plot was already so fragile anyway. how many iterations did Homura pass through before Madoka found her solution? There was a serious danger of any actions I took interfering with Madoka's wish.

There was only one thing I could change...maybe. It was a long shot. Homura knew enough, and I knew enough about her, that I could _maybe_ share my knowledge with her and have her believe me. That would put the whole timeline at risk though, which led to the same damn problem of possibly throwing off Madoka's wish.

In theory I wouldn't forget about Madoka when she became a god, so I might be able to help Homura after it was all over. Commiserate over our lost and forgotten friend. The problem there was that I would have to reveal my complete and utter lack of action, and I had no idea how Homura would respond to that. Probably not well, given the plot of the whole "rebellion" thing.

I sighed, willing myself to pay attention to the teacher's silly rant about omelets. I had been over this a thousand times since the day I had met Kaname Madoka two years prior. I hated it, but I had to accept the fact that there was nothing I could, or even _should_ , do.

It was a truth I had come face to face with long ago, only to find myself furiously rethinking it now that Homura had arrived. I mean, _this was it_. She was here. The show's plot was officially begun. Walpurgisnacht was, what, three weeks away? Two? Hard to remember, when it had been all of twelve years since my rebirth, with another sizeable gap between my death and the time I watched the anime in my past life.

I had been so confused being reborn. I had always believed in souls, but that was kind of because I believed in an _afterlife._ Waking up as a baby in Japan in a near-future version of the world had _not_ matched my expectations. Having to learn Japanese when I already knew English wasn't heaven by any stretch of the imagination, and I discounted hell as an option for the general lack of suffering.

Luckily, I had adapted fairly quickly. I was grateful that the language _did_ come naturally, over time, and I even learned to read all over again. I had no idea of the state of the world, but I had a feeling that leveraging my past life knowledge would not be the best idea, so I had been careful not to stand out as some kind of prodigy.

I still ended up going to the best middle school around though. I was a terrible liar, mainly because I lacked the patience to pretend to be _that_ ignorant. Apparently, Madoka and her friends had been fairly smart, because this school was where I met them.

That had been a shock. I might have thought the name a coincidence, but the pink hair was _kind of_ unique. That and her friends were exactly who I thought they would be, names and all.

It was weird to realize that I wasn't simply reborn, but rather, reborn into a story that I had viewed as fiction. Even weirder to be reborn as another one of those background faces. Seriously, if I was going to be reborn into a story, couldn't it have been somewhere more useful?

At first, I had avoided Madoka. It wasn't conscious, but a part of me was afraid to get too close. She was marked after all. I knew her fate, and I didn't want to get involved with someone who was destined to disappear forever.

The problem, of course, was Madoka herself. She was good hearted and _friendly_ , as well as intelligent. Everyone liked her, and it wasn't possible to avoid interacting with her in such an environment. I'm not sure if she picked up on my reticence about her in particular, or if she was just the kind of person who looked after introverts like me, but she swiftly became one of the people I was more familiar with in the classroom.

Part of me recognized that avoiding her too conspicuously would only serve to draw her attention anyway. It was the rock and the hard place for me apparently.

So having become friends I had tried- _so hard-_ to think of something, _anything_ , I could do. I racked my brain, dredging up details of that show, searching desperately for some kind of solution: and I had come up blank.

Then, for a while, I had convinced myself that this wouldn't be like the show. Even though I had been reborn, and even if she had the name and the friends and the _pink hair_ , that wasn't proof that magical girls could exist, or that this was a universe matching the anime I had seen.

For showing up now and destroying my illusions, a part of me hated Homura.

The worst part was, that despite the tragedy of Madoka's sacrifice, I honestly felt it was better than the alternative: a world of despair and witches. And if I interfered at all, then there was a serious risk I could ruin her wish. Without a viable alternative, I was not going to take that chance. Not with that potential outcome.

So here I was: angry, jealous, and frustrated. Powerless. If only-

"Inamura Keita." A cold voice said beside me, shattering my thoughts like breaking glass. I glanced up and flinched as my eyes met the cool, crisp gaze of someone I hadn't expected. The bell had rung. It was time for lunch. And Akemi Homura had found me.

* * *

Disclaimer: I own no part of Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

A/N: As you can see, I have plans to continue this. This is just an introduction/preview of sorts. Please let me know what you think of it!


	2. Chapter 2

"Homura-chan," I responded casually. My eyes met hers. "How can I help you?"

She didn't react, but I had _absolutely_ used that name on purpose. I was not above playing mind games, especially when she started it. She intentionally got the drop on me and turnabout, as they say, was fair play.

There was no reason to feign ignorance though. I knew why she was interested in me, and given that she _was_ it served my purposes for her to understand that. Ideally she would never have noticed me at all. With that option already lost to me-thanks to... _me_ (and wasn't that a weird feeling)-my immediate concern was going to be damage control. Playing the fool would just irritate the time looper needlessly.

"I need someone to show me to the nurse's office." Homura replied dispassionately. Her clever little confrontation had drawn a lot of attention, and I could see a look of curiosity on Madoka's face in my peripheral vision. She was probably wondering why Homura had singled me out, and in a few seconds would remember that showing new class members to the nurse's office was one of her duties.

Which meant I only had moments to choose: Do I put this conversation off, and annoy Homura in the process, or do I take the chance to try to resolve this in a relatively controlled setting?

The choice was obvious.

"I'd be happy to show you the way, Homura-chan." I replied. Without acknowledging my words, she walked off. Clearly she expected me to follow. A fair assumption, given the circumstances.

"Do you know her, Keita-kun?" Madoka asked as I stood up.

"Not really," I replied vaguely. I needed to keep my options open for the moment, which meant _not_ getting automatically lumped in with the forbidding figure Homura would shortly appear to be to Madoka and company.

"I'll show her the way if you don't mind." I asked her. Madoka nodded and people picked their conversations back up as I made my way to the hallway.

Kids these days were so nosy. It would be more annoying if they weren't all so easily distracted.

Despite the delay, Homura showed no sign of impatience when I finally made it out of the room. Given her usual lack of expression, I didn't really find that reassuring. She eyed me for a moment before turning on her heel and walking away. Without a word she led the way down the hall.

It's a good thing she didn't actually need me to show her to the Nurse's office, because I had no clue how to get there.

I followed her, my thoughts racing.

Anyone with a basic knowledge of the anime who was transplanted into said anime would probably be panicking right about now. Or at least confused. Wasn't Homura supposed to be fixated on Madoka? Didn't she usually take advantage of the break to insist that Madoka accompany her to the nurse's office as some kind of desperate attempt to recreate their initial meeting? Homura _did_ change over the cycles, but the truth of the matter was that she still didn't know how to communicate very well.

Apparently, I had managed to draw her attention and distract her somewhat. Already.

Given my resolution not to interfere with the plot or characters of the show at all, it would not be unreasonable for _me_ to panic at this turn of events. Seeing as how they indicated a failure of my Plan A: avoid attention at all costs.

Fortunately, I am not a _moron_ , and I had considered that this might happen years ago.

By singling me out, Homura had revealed several key pieces of information. First, that I had existed in the previous timelines she had traveled through. Second, that at some point through her travels, I had broken down, ignored my own better judgement, and tried to interfere somehow.

It wasn't that hard to figure out, really. It stood to reason that if I was reborn here at all, I was likely there for each of Homura's attempts to save Madoka. Being me, it was not difficult to predict my own behaviour: all I had to do was imagine what I would do in…well, the situation the _other_ me had likely faced.

Most likely someone had been hurting and I hadn't been able to _not help_. I can be a pretty thoughtless person sometimes, but if someone was suffering right in front of me then I have to step in and do something. The constant suffering in the anime would test my resolve to the utmost...or it would if i could still go with Plan A. It was frustrating to have an option taken away due to my own actions...especially when _I'm_ not the iteration of me who acted.

Luckily, even if the other me had somehow managed to catch Homura's attention in the process, it was extremely unlikely that I had told her anything. The prior me would have known better than to give away too much.

There were things I knew, after all, that could ruin _everything_. Such as the trigger for Homura's despair event horizon. Since she was the one with the magical "reset" button, revealing that knowledge to her would derail any hope of even the anime's imperfect resolution.

"You know who I am." Homura spoke as we walked, facing away from me. "You know _what_ I am."

"I do." I admitted. After a moment I decided to expand on my answer a little, so she didn't take that as an admission to knowledge of _her_ specifically. "I've met a magical girl before."

"You weren't surprised to see me." She replied. "Why?"

I shrugged, though she likely couldn't see it. "You introduced yourself just an hour ago…and then you wanted to talk to me. I figured you must have known that I can tell when someone is a magical girl."

She stopped walking, and I paused as well. We stood in a familiar hallway, the one where Madoka usually talked to Homura at the beginning of the timeline.

"You didn't know that?" I asked her, feigning surprise. Homura shook her head, _still_ facing away from me.

It was a lie of course, but a useful one. There were only so many magical girls I expected to run into, and if Homura bought it then I could reasonably insert myself into all kinds of meaningful interactions.

That is, assuming I even _should_.

"If you didn't know that…" I trailed off as I looked out the window thoughtfully. "Then why are you interested in me?"

She ignored my question of course. "How?"

I shrugged, tucking my hands into the coat pockets of my school uniform.

"Magic?" I offered half-seriously. It wasn't even a lie. Who knew how I ended up being reborn here anyway?

She didn't seem to find that answer satisfactory, although I couldn't be sure since she wasn't facing me.

"How should I know?" I continued. "A magical girl save my life a couple of years back, and ever since then...I could just tell." Rubbing the back of my neck I smiled wryly. "Maybe something just...rubbed off on me?"

Homura's shoulders relaxed in a thoughtful way. She was considering it.

It was utter nonsense, but I didn't expect her to see that. Homura was a twelve year old orphan who got sucked into a magical fight against grief incarnate in the service of an alien plot to prevent the heat-death of the universe. Then she went one step _further_ and traveled repeatedly through a very narrow period of time for who knows how many cycles.

Her sense of what constituted "possible" had to be _seriously_ skewed by now.

"You expect me to believe this." She replied at length, her tone indecipherable.

"Believe it or not. Why should I care?" I offered with another shrug as I looked back out the window. "I still don't get how you can _have magical powers_ , but I know you do."

A familiar clicking sound drew my attention sharply. Homura had finally turned about to face me, a thin frown on her face. That wasn't as worrying as the handgun she had pointed straight at my head.

"Tell me why I shouldn't kill you right here and now." She demanded. A chill crept up my spine, dread settling in my stomach.

Intellectually, I had always known that Homura could be dangerous to me. Suddenly I realized that there was a huge difference between that logical understanding and the gun threatening to end me.

I panicked.

"Wait!" I shouted frantically, backpedaling and waving my hands defensively. 'Why- what- I won't tell anyone, _I swear_!"

Was this all she wanted to see me for? To kill me? What had the other me done? My heart pounded in fear.

There was a tense silence as I waited for her to respond, my eyes glued to the gun. I desperately wanted to look around for some kind of means for escape, but I was too scared to look away.

 _I'm such a fool!_ I thought bitterly. _I knew she was mentally unstable, and I_ still _took this situation far too lightly._

Homura lowered the gun a little, her eyes narrow. "You're not used to dangerous situations."

It wasn't so much a question as a statement. I nodded just in csae. Homura sighed and then pushed the gun into her mysterious hammerspace pocket. I felt a little better, but not really a lot. It's not like it would be hard for Homura to kill me if she wanted to.

With the immediate danger past, my mind finally caught up with me. It kindly pointed out that if she had wanted to, Homura could have just killed me without me even being aware of it. All she would have to do is freeze time and there would be nothing i could do to stop her. I was at her mercy anytime she cared to kill me. Technically, we all were.

She had wanted me to _see_ her point the gun at me, to think she was going to kill me. That had been a _test_.

"That's sick." I muttered, and I walked on my trembling legs over to the nearby wall which I slumped back against as my breathing slowly calmed down.

"I'm…sorry." Homura said, as she approached me. I looked up at her in surprise, and she grimaced, which was the first real emotion I had seen on her face. I didn't think Homura was the kind of person to apologize. Maybe I had misunderstood her character? Or maybe the anime had emphasized some things for the sake of the story.

That was a scary thought. What if the scarce information I had was _wrong_?

"I needed to know if I could trust you," She explained. "And surprising people is often the best way to see what they can do."

"So you needed to make sure I wasn't prepared for _a gun!_ " I asked, just a tad hysterically. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"I'm from the future." Homura replied bluntly. I paused for a moment. I _really_ needed to get myself back under control or she would catch on to me. Fortunately, the shock of my near death experience simulated surprise fairly well for the moment.

"Time traveler. Of course. Can't you just be a magical girl?" I asked petulantly. "Why do you have to be _two_ impossible things?"

The corner of her mouth twitched, just a little, then she sighed and seated herself against the wall opposite me. "I need your help."

" _My_ help?" I asked her, genuinely confused. "What could I possibly do to help you?"

Sure, I expected Homura to want information from me. I mainly thought she would be trying to figure out how I fit into things, since she was so desperate for a solution to her endless failures. Even so, my value in the world of magical girls was extremely limited. As she had just proved.

"Tell me, Keita-kun." She replied with narrowed eyes. "What do you know of Walpurgisnacht?"

* * *

A/N: To be clear, Keita is not always right. He's already made several assumptions that _could_ have been wrong (like the one that he existed in previous timelines). In some cases he's gotten lucky, but that won't always be the case…


End file.
